It’s all hermeneutics. My work explores issues of interpretation with the juxtaposition of text and image. I use text and image symbolically representing our perceptions of things (image), and our concepts of things (text). I cut away, add, or cover parts of the image, often showing the raw canvas or substrate, to break up the narrative. I then add text in the voids that supposedly describe what’s missing. The text and the image shape the way we interpret the painted narrative. The words, however, often impose themselves on the narrative irrespective of compositional or aesthetic considerations. Take for instance Blue Sky in Spanish. where the text creates a wall right through the middle of the canvas, or Untitled (Birds) where the text interrupts the image. Because the text is a source of information, one has to trust the words and assume that the text knows what is missing even when it cannot be seen. The text can be dubious. The clean, almost mechanically flawless execution of the text suggests the text was not made by a human hand, whereas the expressively painted or drawn narratives clearly show they were made by a subjective hand. There is thus a tension between concept and percept as the text and narrative fight for hermeneutical priority.
I call myself a conceptual realist, as the images I depict are both realistically rendered and deal with this-worldly situations. Like realists, I depict what I see, but instead of assuming that what I see is the way things are, I am subjecting my painted narratives to hermeneutical exposition. Both text and visual media are imperfect modes of communication. But it is the exposition of these imperfections that brings us face to face with the process of interpretation.

Hello Steven! So great of you to seek out other Florida Christian artists. You have a great career ahead of you and I pray that your path, even in moments of artistic self-doubt, will be divinely inspired and blessed.